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'Trump could end up in an orange jumpsuit' as the walls close in and his world 'crumbles': biographer
January 22, 2022
In interviews with the Guardian's Ed Pilkington, two people who have been closely associated with Donald Trump going back years claimed that his whole world is falling apart after the Supreme Court turned its back on him and New York Attorney General appears to have enough evidence of fraud by the Trump Organization, the former president and his children Don Jr. and Ivanka Trump.
According to his report, Trump built a golf course in 2006 that set in motion a string of financial statements about his properties over the years that demonstrated a Trump propensity for over-valuing them and that, in turn, raised red flags that drew the attention of NY AG Leticia James.
With James issuing a statement saying, "We have uncovered significant evidence that suggests Donald J Trump and the Trump Organization falsely and fraudulently valued multiple assets and misrepresented those values to financial institutions for economic benefit,” Trump's former lawyer and biographer claim the ex-president's past has finally caught up to him.
RELATED: Startling details of possible Trump Organization crimes revealed in new legal filing
According to former Trump attorney and "fixer" Michael Cohen, "The House of Trump is crumbling.”
As Pilkington reports, "Cohen, who was released in November from house arrest having had his own legal difficulties, has skin in this game. It was his testimony to the House oversight committee in February 2019 that sounded the alarm over allegedly inflated evaluations in Trump’s financial statements, which in turn prompted James to open her investigation the following month."
According to Cohen, "My testimony before the committee as well as my subsequent cooperation with the New York attorney general has led to this day. We are seeing individuals who have continuously escaped responsibility for their actions finally being held accountable.”
Biographer Tim O'Brien claimed that Trump should be even more worried about being investigated by Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, who the columnist described as a "tenacious and relentless prosecutor equipped with a large and highly experienced team of investigators."
"Bragg is asking exactly the same questions as James: did the Trump Organization commit accounting, bank, tax or insurance fraud? The critical difference is that Bragg’s investigation is criminal, threatening Trump not with fines but prison time," Pilkington wrote with O'Brien contributing, "Trump could end up in an orange jumpsuit at the end of that one."
"His book TrumpNation, a 2005 biography that raised doubts about Trump’s actual wealth in eerily similar terms to the James and Bragg investigations today, so irked the real estate developer that he sued O’Brien for billions of dollars," the columnist elaborated. "O’Brien’s lawyers deposed Trump as part of his defense. Over two days they managed to do something that has rarely been done before or since – they got the celebrity to acknowledge, no fewer than 30 times, that he had lied."
According to O'Brien, "This is behavior that Trump has been engaging with since he was a toddler, frankly,” before adding, "There was ample fodder in my book for prosecutors to pursue, but nobody picked it up. Law enforcement simply didn’t take Donald Trump seriously until it was too late.”
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New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who recently bowed out of a much-anticipated U.S. Senate bid, revealed that he was "bothered" after conversations with dozens of Republican Senators, who apparently wanted him to be a "roadblock" until the GOP retakes the White House. Sununu told The Washington Examiner this month that he was initially "pretty close" to running, explaining: "I wasn't ready to make an announcement, but I was like, 'OK, this makes sense. I think I could be a voice nationally.'" But after chatting with "most" of the GOP Senate caucus, Sununu reportedly soured on the role once it became apparent that they wanted him to be a legislative mule.
This article first appeared in Salon.
"They were all, for the most part, content with the speed at which they weren't doing anything. It was very clear that we just have to hold the line for two years," he told the Examiner. "OK, so I'm just going to be a roadblock for two years. That's not what I do."
"It bothered me that they were OK with that," the governor added.
Sununu's comments come in the wake of an intense legislative standoff between Democrats and Republicans over voting rights, an issue which became the focus of President Biden's agenda after negotiations on the "Build Back Better Act" – the president's $2.2 trillion social safety net plan – fell apart.
RELATED: Joe Manchin's revisionist history: Filibuster stands after Senate Democrat sides with Republicans
On Wednesday, Senate Republicans successfully filibustered Biden's sweeping voting rights overhaul – known as the "Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act" – which would standardize voting laws across all 50 states and clamp down on voter suppression. Not a single Republican backed the measure, even though the bill is supported by nearly 70% of Americans, according to a Navigator poll from November.
With Republicans having dashed Biden's hopes of passing the party's two signature pieces of legislation – the "Build Back Better Act" and the "Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act" – Democrats now question whether their colleagues believe in anything other than mindless obstructionism.
During a press conference on Wednesday, Biden echoed the spirit of Sununu's remarks, asking reporters, "What are Republicans for? What are they for? Name me one thing they're for."
That same day, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., sidestepped questioning when asked to lay out GOP's official agenda. "That's a very good question," McConnell said. "And I'll let you know when we take it back."
According to a recent Axios report, the Kentucky Republican has privately told colleagues and donors that the Republicans have no legislative agenda and are more interested in picking apart Democrats'.
Meanwhile, the House GOP caucus appears to be adopting the opposite strategy, according to The Washington Post, with its leadership drumming up a "list of policy pledges" designed to buoy support for the party in 2022.
Among those helming this effort are House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and House Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., both of whom ardently supported Donald Trump's election fraud conspiracy and voted to overturn the 2020 election.
RELATED: The right "isn't fully sold" on Kevin McCarthy's leadership, even if Republicans win the House
Playing an advisory role to McCarthy is former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who crafted the "Contract with America," a legislative platform widely linked to the GOP's successful campaign to flip both chambers in 1994.
Gingrich told the Post that McCarthy doesn't believe an anti-Biden agenda is sufficient for 2022, saying, "We need a positive message."
"I think that's clearly what McCarthy wants to do and I've offered to look at stuff and offer advice," Gingrich added. "There's lots of people in the House working on it. It will be a widespread commitment."
While the exact details of McCarthy's agenda remain hazy, the broad contours of the plan are clear.
So-called "parental rights" are expected to be front and center as Republican state officials continue to decry the alleged instruction of "critical race theory" – whose prevalence appears to be vastly overstated. For remedy, McCarthy has already released an informal "Parents Bill of Rights," which includes such provisions as the "right to be heard" and the "right to know what's being taught in schools and see reading material."
RELATED: Parental rights" started on the Christian fringe — now it's the GOP's winning issue
The House Speaker is also expected to assemble seven "issue-specific task forces" that will tackle a variety of other policy objectives, such as countering China's economic prowess, combating the recent crime wave, securing the nation's borders, regulating Big Tech, cutting corporate taxes, bulldozing environmental regulations, and curtailing inflation.
Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.
The soaring cost of consumer goods has proven an evergreen source of whataboutism for Republicans, even as the year-end jobs numbers indicate that Biden has steered the economy through an unprecedented economic recovery since he took office. Fox News called inflation a "top weapon" for the GOP to wield against Democrats in the upcoming midterms.
Throughout 2021, the consumer prices index rose 6.8% – the highest increase it has seen since 1982.
RELATED: Behind Biden's booming economy
But when it comes to actually tackling inflation, lawmakers have historically had to walk a tightrope, said Brian Riedl, who served as an aide to Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio.
"There is nothing that messages well, significantly reduces inflation and is painless," Riedl told the Post. "It's easier to criticize inflation than to map out an actual solution going forward, and that's the box Republicans are currently in."
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Bill Maher reveals how Democrats can fight fire with fire and give Barack Obama a third term
January 21, 2022
Comedian Bill Maher facetiously suggested Friday night that Democrats should grant former president Barack Obama a third term by having him "gay-marry" President Joe Biden.
Pointing to Biden's record-low approval ratings, Maher said during the season premiere of HBO's "Real Time" that it's time to "move him into a more ceremonial role."
According to Maher, the problem is that even when Biden does something good, he gets no credit.
"This is what happens when you lack passionate defenders, as opposed to Trump, who every day sh*t the bed, and 90 percent of Republicans blamed the bed," Maher said. "And Biden may well have even further to fall, because there's no die-hard Biden base. His is a coalition of the un-enthused. No one ever fainted during one of his speeches, or claimed Biden was appointed by God, or asked him to sign their tits."
Quipping that the Democratic Party lacks any "big-d*ck energy," Maher said the "bench is so thin" that "they're even talking about running Hillary (Clinton) again." He added that Vice President Kamala Harris' approval rating is even lower than Biden's, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is "too old," Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is "too young," and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo "didn't work out."
"But there is one guy all Democrats could rally behind and would love to see back in the White House," Maher said, referring to Obama. "Of course, you're saying Obama can't be president again — he's had two terms, and that's the rule. You know, politics, often called the art of the possible, really is now the art of whatever you can get away with, something only Republicans seem to realize, like when they just made up that presidents can't appoint a Supreme Court justice in an election year, or when they changed their mind and said, 'Oh wait, they can when our side is in power.'"
"To them, hypocrisy is not a bug, it's a feature," Maher said. "They're all about grinning in the mirror as they shove it up your ass, like Jesus would do. That's the essence of Trumpism."
He compared the GOP's tactics to the 1970s Disney movie "Gus," about a mule who gets signed to kick field goals for a football team because there's no specific rule that prohibits it.
"Trump pulled a 'Gus' every day when he was in the White House," Maher said. "What the Democrats have to do now is their version of a 'Gus.' And it goes like this: Biden and Obama must divorce their wives — not leave them, just officially legally divorce them. Then, Biden will gay-marry Obama, thereby putting him back in the White House. The law says Obama can't be president again, but there's nothing that says he can't be first lady."
Noting that all first ladies have pet projects, Maher said Obama's would be "running the federal government."
Watch below.
New Rule: First Lady Barack Obama | Real Time (HBO) www.youtube.com
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